Cruz told reporters, “It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often, but you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time. Donald you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone.”

The senator from Texas went on to say that he will beat Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. He accused Trump of being scared of strong women, scared to debate, scared of Megyn Kelly, and scared to defend his policies.

Cruz accused Trump of lashing out against his wife because of Cruz’s strong win in Utah last Tuesday. “Let me be absolutely clear, our spouses and our children are off bounds. It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife.”

He went on to laud Heidi as the daughter of Christian missionaries and an “unbelievable mom,” his best friend, and the love of his life. Cruz called on Trump to stick to attacking him and not wife Heidi.

The Trump camp quickly responded, according to CNBC: “Ted Cruz is desperate right now to stay relevant in this campaign cycle… (Trump) has a long history of working very closely with women and has a great relationship with them.”

Leading up to the Utah Republican presidential caucus, the anti-Trump Super PAC Make America Awesome founded by Liz Mair ran Facebook ads with a partially nude modeling photo of Trump’s wife Melania with the words, “Meet Melania Trump, your next First Lady. Or you could vote for Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” Mair said the group was targeting conservative Mormon women.

The ad became national news when Trump Tweeted on Tuesday, the day of the Utah and Arizona presidential primary contests, accusing Cruz of sponsoring the ad and threatening to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife Heidi:

Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!

Heidi Cruz offered her own response on Wednesday to Trump’s “spill the beans” comment saying, “Well, as you probably know by now, most of the things that Donald Trump says have no basis in reality.” She continued, “So we are not worried in the least and [we are] focusing on our campaign, and we are going to continue to do that.”

Cruz Communications Director Alice Stewart clarified to CNN that the Make America Awesome PAC is anti-Trump and not pro-Cruz. She further stated that Cruz has denounced the ad with his comments that “spouses are completely off limits and family members are completely off limits when it comes to the presidential race and the discourse and he has made that quite clear.”